Health Minister gives S'pore a poor grade in hygiene
Sun Apr 12 2009
Ho Lian-Yi
The New Paper
Birds eat on uncleared plates --TNP PICTURE: KELVIN CHNG
Singapore, April 11, 2009 - TWO have died. Forty-eight have been hospitalised. Five are still warded. More have been treated as outpatients. One stall, 154 victims.
It's the worst case of mass poisoning involving hawker food here.
On Thursday,
Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan gave Singapore a poor grade in hygiene.
'During Sars we were very good, maybe 9/10. After Sars, I think we have dropped to maybe 5/10 or worse,' he said.
Complacency had set in, he added.
A borderline pass or fail grade must surely prompt our hawkers to wake up. But will they?
Yesterday afternoon, when
Environment and Water Resources Minister Yaacob Ibrahim visited Geylang Serai Temporary Market, he said he agreed with Mr Khaw.
'We cannot tolerate it, and I hope hawkers and hawker centres will take this as a wake-up call and step up, and improve their hygiene standards,' he said.
Dr Yaacob pulled no punches.
Rats scurrying around
'Our job here is to get to the bottom of the incident. We want to find out who is responsible and what are the causes - to prevent this from happening.
'And we will go after the person responsible.'
Be serious
Don't get us wrong. We love our hawker food.
But when 'A' for taste and 'F' for hygiene adds up to RIP for some, this spells tragedy with a big 'T'.
So, Mr Hawker, it is time to take hygiene checks seriously.
Many of you do not even display your hygiene rating signs.
Yesterday, we found out that the son of the Indian rojak man, at the centre of the mass poisoning, allegedly didn't even give his father the latest hygiene grading from the National Environment Agency (NEA).
The story: When Rojak Geylang Serai boss Sheik Allaudin Mohideen, 70, moved to the Geylang Serai Temporary Market from the original market, which closed in 2006, his stall's rating was 'B', for good.
In 2007, his grading was revised to 'C', for average.
No grading signs
So NEA, following usual practice, gave the stall a new label. It was passed to his eldest son, one of two sons working for him.
Mr Khoo Seow Poh, director-general of public health with the NEA, said: 'His son, apparently, didn't tell his father, so his father didn't know.
'So the father thought it was always 'B'. And they can't find the label any more.'
In 2008, the shop was again graded 'C' for hygiene, but no new label was given, as there was no change.
Why did the son keep quiet? Was he scared of his father's wrath, or did he simply not care?
Surely he must have known that food operators are required to post their hygiene grade prominently, or risk a fine up to $2,000 and two demerit points?
But punishment is toothless without enforcement.
How could Mr Allaudin's stall have got away with not displaying the proper grade for so long?
The answer: The inspector did not notice the label during checks last December.
If only this was a one-off thing, an anomaly.
But when The New Paper visited 18 hawker centres on Wednesday, we found that only about eight out of every 10 stalls had displayed the grades.
That means 20 per cent didn't.
The excuses: Lost lah, don't know I have to put up lah, even accidentally left it home lah.
When was the last time you went a week without eating at a hawker centre?
I personally can't remember. It is so much a part of our life.
Food is Singapore's national past time.
Yet only recently I found myself staring at a stallholder, who was 'spring cleaning' by spraying insecticide into a cardboard box.
Cockroaches were swarming out, helter skelter.
It was like a scene from a horror movie.
A reporter from the Chinese press, one of many who have descended on the Geylang Serai market the last few days, also found the six-legged critters everywhere.
'There were young cockroaches, old cockroaches, big ones, small ones, every sort of cockroach you can find,' she said.
But cockroaches are small fry compared with rats.
On Thursday night they caught another 53, in addition to the 69 the day before.
Why did it take a death (in this case, two deaths), and intense NEA attention, before effective steps were taken?
In hawker centres everywhere, you see birds feed and poo on uncleared plates at hawker centres, as patrons tuck into their daily fare at nearby tables.
We have all heard the horror stories or seen with our own eyes food workers who go to the washroom without washing their hands afterwards.
Or handle cash and food with the same hand, or glove, rendering that piece of hygiene equipment merely cosmetic.
Many hawkers lack or don't even care about basic hygiene knowledge.
Are they aware of the many ways that bacteria can lead to food poisoning? (Take a look at our graphic.)
Do they teach their foreign helpers?
The NEA is educating the hawkers - but are the hawkers paying attention?
Wake up, Mr Hawker.
Hawkers won't take this seriously unless consumers and public agencies also put pressure on them.
We're sick to the stomach with dirty practices. But we also love our hawker food - it's a national treasure.
Die die must eat. But when people really start dying, it's time for all of us to wake up.
